An Antique Quilt is Waiting for Me!

At some point, I'm going to slow down on my writing and start quilting again. I've got a very special project ahead of me, one that's been waiting since 1932. There won't be any rooms for mistakes, and frankly I'm scared silly to start it!

68 Years ago my Grandmother eagerly awaited the weekly Wichita newspaper.... each week they would print a pattern for a state flower quilt block. She would cut it out, take a piece of muslin and embroider the flower, along with the initials of the state. Can you imagine a 13 year old girl waiting each week for poppa to bring home the paper, waiting till everyone had read it... then cutting out the pattern and sewing by hand. They had no electricity yet, so her sewing was done mainly during the day. Notoriously ducking chores to go off and do her own thing...she was an independent cuss. These quilt blocks are about 10" square....on very thin cloth, that won't hold up well once it's sewn. They went into Grandma's hope chest, after working on them for nearly a year, she put them away.

There's no way to describe her life of travel and failed marriages, the hope chest being drug from Oklahoma to Chicago, all over Kansas and back. She never took up sewing again, the quilt blocks just lay waiting for me all these years. When my grandmother died...my aunt ended up with the quilt blocks. NONE of us knew about them prior to her having found them... when I took up quilting, a few years ago, my aunt surprised me with the best Christmas gift I ever got.... the quilt blocks. She told me what she knew about them, the rest we gathered from my grandmothers' diary she kept as a girl. My auntie said she was just waiting for someone to take up quilting, and whispered "I'm just glad it was you honey". My aunt passed on shortly after this.

So this is the BIG project I'm facing, and there are problems already. There are alot of duplicate blocks that need weeded out, but I'm glad, a few have spots (possibly blood spots from sewing them, as was a common occurrence). I will frame these extra blocks and surprise my family with them as gifts, while I tackle the quilt.

I researched the fabrics that were available in the 1930s, and they are such poor quality for the most part, it's hard to get your hands on THAT much material anyway. SO I chose a reproduction fabric, from a popular pattern in the 1930s. The photo shown is one of the blocks, along with the material I've chosen.
I hope it looks good together, I think my grandma would be so happy!